Tag Archive | "nflpa"

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Former Towson football running back Terrance West will be among the group of 35 top rookies from the 2014 NFL Draft class who will come together in Los Angeles from May 29-31 to learn the business of football at the 20th annual National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) Rookie Premiere.

Throughout the event, players will gain information to assist in the development of their professional careers. The union’s annual orientation includes seminars focused on financial planning, brand building, group player rights, and social media best practices.

“NFLPA Rookie Premiere is an unparalleled opportunity for our partners to engage with tomorrow’s most influential athletes today,” said Gordon. “For the first time as professionals, players will learn about the business of football from fellow players, union leadership, and industry experts as they start to build a game plan to succeed beyond their playing careers.”

The three-day event, hosted by NFLPI, the marketing and licensing arm of the NFLPA, will also feature one of the most thrilling moments for any rookie – wearing their official Nike team uniforms for the first time during photo shoots with trading card companies Panini America and Topps at LA Memorial Coliseum.

Launched in Los Angeles in 1994, NFLPA Rookie Premiere is unique across professional sports as the event provides business partners with unmatched access to many of the NFL’s most promising and marketable young stars. Each year, NFLPI facilitates approximately 100 individual player service deals for NFLPA Rookie Premiere participants.

What is the 2014 Salary Cap?
The 2014 Salary Cap is set at $133 million per Club, a $10 million increase over the prior year.
How does that number impact each team?The $133 million is the per Club salary cap. However, each team may, at its own discretion, carry over unused salary cap room from the prior League Year. Most Clubs elected to carry over Salary Cap room from 2013 to 2014. The average carry over for those teams that elected to do so was $6.1 million per Club. Thus, those Clubs have an average of $139.1 million to spend on player salaries in 2014.
How is the Salary Cap calculated?
The Salary Cap is calculated by taking a percentage of all projected NFL revenues, subtracting projected benefits for the upcoming season, and dividing by 32 teams.
What are team minimum cash spends?Under the current CBA, Clubs have minimum cash spending requirements. For the years 2013-2016, Clubs are required to spend an average of 89% of the Salary Cap over the four-year period. League-wide, Clubs must spend an average of 95% of the Salary Cap over the four-year period.

This creates a cash-spend floor, forcing historically low-spending Clubs to offer overall competitive compensation for packages.
Are player benefits taken out of this $133 million?
The $133 million Salary Cap is the cap on active player salaries. In addition, each Club will spend in excess of $33 million in benefits. This includes pension, severance, workers’ compensation, insurance premiums, disability benefits, etc.

Two of the most notable rule changes passed by the NFL earlier this offseason will not go into effect for the 2012 season after all.

The NFL Players Association did not approve changes to the injured reserve list and the trade deadline, meaning there will not be an injured-player exemption or a later deadline for making trades for at least another season.

The IR rule change passed in May would have provided teams with the opportunity to place one player on injured reserve — thus saving a spot on the 53-man roster — with the option of activating that player for the second half of the season. Under current league rules, any player placed on IR is lost for the season.

Owners had also voted to move the trade deadline back two weeks from the end of the sixth week of the regular season to the Tuesday of Week 8 at 4 p.m. ET.

According to the rules of the collective bargaining agreement, the NFLPA had to approve both rule changes for them to take effect.

According to a FOXSports.com report, the new rules were linked to alterations to in-season practice rules, which led to the union voting against them.

The news doesn’t really impact the Ravens for this season as injured linebacker Terrell Suggs is eligible to begin the season on the reserve non-football injury list, which would sideline him for the first six weeks of the season while allowing the team to replace him on the 53-man roster. After Week 6 of the regular season, Suggs will have a three-week window to begin practicing before the Ravens must then determine whether to place him on the 53-man roster or keep him on the list, which would then end his season.

The same conditions apply to wide receiver and return specialist David Reed, who remains on the active physically unable to perform list as he continues to rehab the surgically-repaired ACL in his left knee.

If approved by the NFLPA, the IR exemption could have applied to defensive lineman Ryan McBean if the prognosis for his fractured ankle would have suggested a potential return midway through the season. Of course, McBean underwent ankle surgery and will miss the rest of the season.

NFL, NFLPA AGREE ON FULL FUNDING OF LEGACY BENEFITS FOR ELIGIBLE WIDOWS AND SURVIVORS OF PRE-1993 PLAYERS

The NFL and NFL Players Association have reached an agreement to extend the collective bargaining agreement’s new Legacy benefits to approximately 330 widows and other survivors of eligible pre-1993 players, the NFL and NFLPA announced jointly today.

Each of the eligible beneficiaries will receive an increase in the amount they were receiving as of the effective date of the CBA. The benefit will be retroactive to August 1, 2011, which was the same effective date for the Legacy benefit for eligible pre-1993 players.

The funding of the benefit will be split on the same basis as the funding for the other beneficiaries of the Legacy Fund – 51 percent paid by the NFL and 49 percent by the NFLPA.

Widows and survivors qualifying for this benefit will begin receiving their retroactive checks within the next two weeks. They will begin receiving their monthly benefits beginning August 1.

Washington, D.C. – The Class Counsel under the Reggie White settlement agreement and the NFL Players Association today filed a complaint, on behalf of the NFL players, charging the NFL, its clubs and their owners of collusion during the 2010 NFL season. The complaint details a conspiracy to violate the anti-collusion and anti-circumvention provisions in the White Settlement Agreement (SSA) by “imposing a secret $123 million per-Club salary cap for that uncapped 2010 season.”

The written claim is filed with the United States District Court of Minnesota, which oversees the SSA and alleges that the league and owners acted illegally and “solely by self-interest, unconstrained by their clear and unambiguous SSA obligations.”

“When the rules are broken in a way that hurts the game, we have an obligation to act. We cannot standby when we now know that the owners conspired to collude,” said DeMaurice Smith, NFLPA Executive Director.

“Our union recently learned that there was a secret salary cap agreement in an uncapped year. The complaint today is our effort to fulfill our duty to every NFL player. They deserve to know, above all, the facts and the truth about this conspiracy,” said Domonique Foxworth, NFLPA President.

The complaint cites John Mara, owner of the New York Giants, who also serves as the Chair of the NFL Management Council Executive Committee, as publicly confirming that the NFL directed teams to restrict players’ salaries during the uncapped year. When asked about imposed penalties for the Redskins and Cowboys, he replied: “What they did was in violation of the spirit of the salary cap. They attempted to take advantage of a one-year loophole … full well knowing there would be consequences.”

Such a scheme breaches express anti-collusion and anti-circumvention provisions of the SSA and the owners’ duty of good faith in implementing the SSA.

In the filing, it is alleged that the NFL and owners furthered their concealment by “approving the very player contracts that enabled the Redskins, Cowboys, Raiders, and Saints to exceed the secret, collusive salary cap” and, prior to and on March 11, 2012, failed to disclose to the players or the NFLPA “that the true reason for the then-proposed reallocation was to penalize the Redskins, Cowboys, Raiders, and Saints for not fully abiding by the Collusive Agreement.”

Also as described in the complaint, these collusion and other claims are entirely new and were previously unknown to the players and the NFLPA. They therefore were not asserted, and could not have been asserted, in the previous actions that were filed in either Brady. v. NFL or under the SSA in the White litigation.

The players and the NFLPA will be represented in these proceedings by Jeffrey Kessler, David Feher and David Greenspan of Winston & Strawn, LLP; James Quinn of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP; David Barrett, James Barrett, Daniel Schecter, Thomas Heiden and Michael Nelson of Latham & Watkins, LLP; Barbara Berens of Berens & Miller, P.A.; Mark Jacobson of Lindquist & Vennum, PLLP and DeMaurice Smith, Executive Director of the NFLPA.

MARCO ISLAND, Fla. (March 25, 2011) – Domonique Foxworth was nominated and elected without opposition as President of the NFL Players Association today at the NFLPA Board of Player Representatives Meeting. DeMaurice Smith was reaffirmed unanimously as Executive Director by the board on March 22.

“One of the most important things I learned from Kevin is about responsibility,” Foxworth, a free agent cornerback, said to the board following his election. “Players like to say, ‘The NFLPA is our organization.’ There is a wealth of experience and talent in this room, and I will reach out to each and every one of you about your interests and passions. If we work as hard as we did during the lockout now in peacetime, we will be the strongest organization in the world.”

Foxworth’s unanimous election to the post follows four years of service on the executive committee. In 2007, he was elected by the Broncos as a Player Representative and was named the Broncos’ Walter Payton Man of the Year. In 2008, he ran and was elected as the youngest Vice President of the NFLPA Executive Committee.

“We don’t take on roles of leadership in order to pad our stats, build our resumes, or strengthen our positions,” Mawae said as he retired from the post of NFLPA President, a spot he held for four years. “We become leaders so that we can serve others who themselves don’t yet have the wherewithal, the knowledge, or the experience to lead. We don’t coerce, manipulate, or force. We simply serve.”

“It’s been a blessing,” Richardson said. “The biggest thing I’m proud of is taking advantage of every opportunity we were offered, from education to development to benefits, because if I didn’t do it, how could I tell the young guys they should be doing it? Every decision we made was for the betterment of our organization. My only agenda, ever, has been to serve the players.”

“We get a chance to play an amazing game and compete on the highest level, and I feel fortunate to have stood shoulder to shoulder with some of the greatest men in this game,” Morey said. “I appreciate our leadership letting me talk, trusting me, helping me understand the negotiation process and keeping me disciplined and focused.”

Hasselbeck, a Boston College graduate, has been playing in the NFL since 1998 and owns nearly every single-season and career record for quarterbacks with the Seattle Seahawks. The three-time Pro Bowler was first elected to the NFLPA Board of Player Representatives in 2008. Off the field, Hasselbeck is involved with numerous charitable efforts, including raising funds and awareness to help provide clean water to those in need.

Light was first elected as a Player Representative in 2008 and has served continuously since. A graduate of Purdue University, his career in the NFL has consisted of four Pro Bowl selections and three Super Bowl championships. A member of the Patriots’ 50th Anniversary Team, he established the Light Foundation which provides youth with unique outdoor experiences to help them become stronger individuals and better members of their communities.

Moore is an offensive lineman with the New York Jets and graduate of the University of Illinois. He has served as on the NFLPA Board of Player Representatives since 2007 and was a recipient of the Ed Block Courage Award in 2011. The Pro Bowl selection created the Moore Family Foundation to provide disadvantaged youth with positive holiday experiences, school supplies and other important needs.

Watson, a tight end for the Cleveland Browns, was first elected as a Player Representative in 2010. The graduate of the University of Georgia was a first round pick in the 2004 NFL Draft. A Super Bowl Champion with the New England Patriots, Watson created a foundation to support charities that provide educational and enrichment opportunities. He is also a spokesperson for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and volunteers for organizations such as Habitat for Humanity.

The 2012 NFLPA Board of Player Representatives Meeting continues through March 26.

Less than 24 hours after the start of free agency, the Ravens have suffered their first casualty as defensive end Cory Redding is joining the Indianapolis Colts.

Joining former Baltimore defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano, Redding has agreed to a three-year, $10.5 million contract, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The 31-year-old defensive lineman was reportedly in negotiations with Indianapolis after taking a visit on Tuesday night and will be a good fit as Indianapolis transitions to Pagano’s 3-4 scheme.

Of the Ravens’ three defensive starters who were unrestricted free agents, Redding was considered to be the most replaceable with third-year defensive lineman Arthur Jones expected to step into the starting lineup on first and second down. In passing situations, linebacker Paul Kruger and defensive end Pernell McPhee will continue their roles as pass-rushing specialists.

Signed to a two-year, $6 million contract in 2010, Redding registered 7 1/2 sacks and 85 tackles in 30 games with Baltimore.

The Ravens will miss the 31-year-old’s leadership in the locker room, but with limited cap space and a viable replacement already on the roster, his departure is not exactly surprising.